While the search giant has been a bit reticent to offer details about what precisely the level of service will be, who will have access to it, and how much it will cost, one thing remains clear: fiber is freakin’ fast. It’s expected to raise the average level of connectivity by about two orders of magnitude, with speeds reaching up to one gigabit per second.

A new report in BusinessWeek suggests that Hollywood may be a little worried that this will enable rampant piracy, but it could nonetheless be beneficial for studios who know how to take advantage of it.

"We want to reinforce that higher speeds could be a great opportunity for consumers, and that's the bottom line," Howard Gantman, spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America, told Ars on Friday. "There are problems that can, in terms of [an] increase of digital piracy, come with that, but we are hopeful that efforts can be made... to address digital piracy."

Meanwhile, 180 miles to the north, in Iowa, Google is also getting busy. This week, the company announced plans to build a new $300 million data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, just outside of Omaha. This facility is expected to continue to do what another Council Bluffs site did when it came online in 2009: host Gmail, Google Maps, Google+, and of course, search.

The future is gonna be fast internet. There's uses for the internet we haven't even dreamed up yet that faster speeds will enable. Telcos also resist this because it enables free IP telephony and reduces them to providing a 'dumb-pipe', I say that's fair competition, get used to it.

I know its fun to rag on the MPAA, but really why were they even asked? What did anyone expect them to say? They aren't fighting against it, they are still worried about piracy, and that is exactly what they said.

In a rebuttal to the comment here MPAA spokes-idyit Sigmoid NarmNuhts said "Essentially we have no problems with the fiber itself. We just want _any_ content that runs over it that we don't control to be limited to 28.8 KBps speeds. Content we control can go as fast as it can. We are completely OK with that...."

I know its fun to rag on the MPAA, but really why were they even asked? What did anyone expect them to say? They aren't fighting against it, they are still worried about piracy, and that is exactly what they said.

Because MPAA's first response is always "piracy!". They're totally clueless; they don't adapt to digital distribution, they just try and squeeze every penny out of the same rotting corpse of a business model.

When they see some company doing well (Google?), they don't try and think how to adapt their model, they just accuse the company of IP theft and try and sue some profits out of it.

If they were a villian from the cookie-cutter movies they're so fond of cranking out, they'd be dismissed as flat and unsympathetic.

These people are idiots. Instead of being excited about a network that will allow them to thrive in the digital marketplaces that are the future of their industry they are wary and fighting against it the whole way. I hope they are all left in the dust after the digital revolution.

They have such a delusional sense of entitlement that they muse about stopping technological development in its tracks, even if that lower level of technology negatively impacts every other business and person on the planet that relies on a much improved internet.

You see, the incumbent ISPs are really doing the world a service by dragging ass on the copper to fiber transition and charging exorbitant rates for shit speeds and low caps. That makes them job creators AND job protectors! Thank you MPAA for that enlightening view that would never have occurred to my feeble mind.

They have such a delusional sense of entitlement that they muse about stopping technological development in its tracks, even if that lower level of technology negatively impacts every other business and person on the planet that relies on a much improved internet.

I could have done a ++ to almost every post in this thread. But I picked this one. A+ sir. Sometimes I think that they must somehow realize how amazingly myopic and laughably self-centered their stance is regarding every aspect of technology, but are just forced to play the hand they have been given somehow. It's almost the only thing that makes sense.

But I have to admit, I kinda feel this one down to my bones, too:

Chris R. wrote:

You know what else can contribute to piracy? Walking! That's right every day toddlers learn to walk, as they learn to walk they can potentially steal things.

I have to say, this is the dumbest fucking shit I have ever heard. Screw em I don't feel bad downloading movies and shows any more, if they refuse to respect us, then I refuse to respect them.

I'm sure the MPAA and RIAA would love nothing more than to shut down the internet world-wide altogether to protect their precious works from piracy. And no doubt outlaw any CD, DVD, BLURAY, tape and other recording device that could potentially make a copy of one of their, again, precious works. The truth is, most of those, again, precious works, are crap. No one wants to buy them. They WILL try a free copy so they don't feel like they've been ripped off.

I'm sure the MPAA and RIAA would love nothing more than to shut down the internet world-wide altogether to protect their precious works from piracy. And no doubt outlaw any CD, DVD, BLURAY, tape and other recording device that could potentially make a copy of one of their, again, precious works. The truth is, most of those, again, precious works, are crap. No one wants to buy them. They WILL try a free copy so they don't feel like they've been ripped off.

They tried to kill the VCR too. They were dinosaurs back in the Stone Age and here they still are, dinosaurs in the InfoSec Age.

As for how 'precious' their copyrighted 'works' are, I can't wait to hear them blame the colossal bombing of John Connor on piracy rather than studio idiocy.

When was the last time an MPAA studio released an original piece of IP anyway? Like 2000?

I know its fun to rag on the MPAA, but really why were they even asked? What did anyone expect them to say? They aren't fighting against it, they are still worried about piracy, and that is exactly what they said.

Because that's what the [BusinessWeek] article is about. New angle on old news.

I guess the interesting portion is that they are worried about the increase of speed and their allegations that increased speed has ruined the home entertainment market in South Korea.

Offer me content in an affordable, consumer-friendly way. I have no interest in buying discs. I want content that is digital and playable on anything I choose. Those aren't unrealistic expectations with the technology available. Until you offer me that GTFO.

I know its fun to rag on the MPAA, but really why were they even asked? What did anyone expect them to say? They aren't fighting against it, they are still worried about piracy, and that is exactly what they said.

Because that's what the [BusinessWeek] article is about. New angle on old news.

I guess the interesting portion is that they are worried about the increase of speed and their allegations that increased speed has ruined the home entertainment market in South Korea.

I guess I've just gotten so used to them doing stupid things that one somewhat mild comment in a BusinessWeek article doesn't seem like a big deal. I'd imagine if they had asked the EFF what they thought about the google fiber they'd just say, "It's going to be great for consumers, but they just need to be careful about their privacy because the faster speed will make it easier for them to do things online."

They have such a delusional sense of entitlement that they muse about stopping technological development in its tracks, even if that lower level of technology negatively impacts every other business and person on the planet that relies on a much improved internet.

Well, we should take the MPAA's opinions into account. We wouldn't want them to be negatively affected, seeing as they've done so much to cure disease, shelter people and end world hunger.

So we should go back to 300 baud because it will make piracy more difficult? Maybe we should go back to before VCRs so people can't tape programs or, better yet, let's go back to pre-Edison days then no one can pirate music because it couldn't be recorded. Oops I made a mistake, maybe we should go back to before writing so people can't copy the music score?

Good god, the people that own the record and movies companies need to be stuck away on their own private island and never be allowed off!

It is a bit like saying that we should outlaw phones because a criminal may use them to commit organized crime. These things have legitimate uses too. Phones provided a revolution for example in communication and the spread of information. The internet has as well and increasing the speed of it will continue to do so.

It seems that the MPAA and RIAA are there to protect a dying business model. They advocate for halting the progress of technology so that they can extract economic rent from society, while delivering little of value, whether to us, the public, or even in the case of the RIAA to the artists that actually produce the useful content that they try to take credit for (being a music artist is much harder than many people think).

I for one, firmly believe that society would be better off without such organizations and that intellectual property as a whole is so strong that it is counterproductive.

'I say to you that the MPAA is to the American internet industry and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.'

That is not a very good comparison. There is 1 BIG deference.The Boston Strangler ..... I'm betting a few good movie idea's could come out of this.....The MPAA....... There hasn't been a good movie idea out of this in about 20 years.

Tell Howard Gantman, spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America that the motion picture industry isn't turning out anything worth pirating. So they have nothing to worry about. For that matter, the record producers are pretty much turning out 90% crap for the past 10 years, too. Oh, let's not forgot television. All Crap. Vast wasteland of dripping oozing MUNG, the lot of them. Haha.. I'll download all 3 seasons of Lost in Space and all the episodes of Pee Wee's Playhouse from PirateBay and kick back, light up an L&M blue and enjoy REAL entertainment. FREE.. PIRATED. STOLEN. Thieving bastard that i am.. I'm lovin' it. OY.

Seriously, a big chunk of the developed world is enjoying high speed fiber, yet Merica and their backwards thinking is always throwing up roadblocks instead of just doing it. The MPAA and everyone that listens to their bullshit should be burned in a fire made of herpes.

Let's ask the MPAA what they think of, I dunno, mining asteroids and the sudden influx of palladium on the near-earth orbit market. I bet the response is: "There are problems that can, in terms of [an] increase of digital piracy, come with that, but we are hopeful that efforts can be made... to address digital piracy."

I don't understand why they were asked or why anyone cared to hear their (predictably nonsensical) answer, and I am completely missing what exactly it is that I can pirate over fiber that I can't pirate over coax or whatever. It would take me a few hours to get everything I can think of that I might want and don't already have over my completely average cable connection speeds. Is there some magical unicorn type fiber content that I am unaware of, or is this just the utterly meaningless product of a bowel movement that I think it is?He said fiber. heh heh

The MPAA doesn't make anything. The RIAA and MPAA exist to prop up an antiquated system that funnels money into the pockets of producers, agents, studios, and entertainment execs at the expense of fostering creativity and risk taking for the actual artists who create music and films.

Both organizations are the puppets of studios who would be more than happy to stifle privacy and fair use rights as well as hold back revolutionary technological advancements if it means that they can keep raking in the dough doing business as usual. Both use scare tactics and FUD in their PR campaigns to make it seem like they have the best interests of the artists at heart when in actuality they see the artists as nothing more than a product and consumers as nothing more than rubes ripe for the fleecing.